Fixer Upper Star Sued for More Than $1M

Chip Gaines' former business partners say he kept TV deal a secret
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2017 2:43 PM CDT
Fixer Upper Star Sued for More Than $1M
Chip Gaines, right, star of "Fixer Upper" on HGTV, has been sued by his former business partners for more than $1 million.   (Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP)

The star of HGTV's Fixer Upper is being sued for more than $1 million by his former business partners, E! News reports. John Lewis and Richard Clark claim Chip Gaines pressured and threatened them into selling their shares in Magnolia Real Estate to him for $2,500 each two days before HGTV announced it was picking up Fixer Upper. They say Gaines kept them in the dark while working with HGTV. Magnolia Real Estate is featured in Fixer Upper, and the lawsuit claims that since the show started airing, Magnolia has gone from one real estate agent in Waco to nearly 100 agents in all major Texas cities, according to People. Gaines responded to news of the lawsuit with a Bible verse: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (More Fixer Upper stories.)

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